


Rabbit Starts Autumn

by GretchenSinister



Series: My Top 20 Short Gen Fics [3]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Folklore, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 09:37:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17805581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Based off a headcanon:Jack seems like the prankster type, the one who would think he’s the top prankster in the land. Only well - the Hare’s a trickster in all kinda of cultures, from the benevolent, fun-filled variety to the scary, demon kind. And Bunny is the Hare, the Trickster, and pranks and jokes and sly tricks are as much his duty as Easter and Spring are.Can I see some reactions the Guardians (and Pitch) have had to pranks Bunny’s pulled, or unexplained phenonemna that were tricks from the ultimate Trickster?"When the Nightmare Man’s out hunting, all wise creatures stay inside. Rabbit is not a wise creature.Tried a folktale style for this one.





	Rabbit Starts Autumn

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr 2/18/2014.

Once upon a time, the Nightmare Man was out hunting, and all his dogs and horses with him: creatures black as the shadows of the night they were, with eyes glowing like stars to better disguise themselves as they ran across the sky. Now this night they had been out a very long time and seen hide nor hair of man or beast, for in those days all creatures were wise enough to run far and fast when the Nightmare Man was on the hunt.  
  
All creatures, that is, save Rabbit.  
  
Now, Rabbit, as you may know, is a foolish creature, but also a vain one. So though he liked to whoop and holler and dance, he didn’t like for anyone else to know he did, for he knew he didn’t have a sweet voice like the little birds or graceful legs like the deer.  
  
Well, when he poked his nose out of his hole this night, he could smell nothing and nobody for miles around in the forest. In his excitement, he leapt out and began his capering where no one could see him, not even the Moon. So happy he was to dance freely, he forgot that the forest only emptied for the likes of the Nightmare Man.  
  
Now it didn’t take the Nightmare Man and all his dogs and horses to find Rabbit, as he was being so loud, and though they loved a good chase, it was getting a touch too close near dawn for them to want to spend time chasing someone as fast as Rabbit, so they all snuck up on him, quiet as quiet can be. And when they had him surrounded, the Nightmare Man stepped out into the cleaning and said, “My hunt and I have caught a great prize tonight! I’ve never seen a Rabbit as fine as you!”  
  
Rabbit didn’t like to turn down a compliment, but he knew if he didn’t think fast he’d be turned into the fur lining on the Nightmare Man’s cloak in the twinkling of an eye. And so he said, “Rabbit? What Rabbit?”  
  
“Why, you Rabbit!” said the Nightmare Man.  
  
“I’m no Rabbit!” said Rabbit. “Oh, that makes me laugh!” And he laughed and laughed so hard he had to roll around on the ground, until all his fur was covered with the soft dark earth of the forest. After he stopped laughing, he stood up, and acted like he was brushing off his fur, though he was really patting the dirt into it. “I’m a Pooka!”  
  
The Nightmare Man looked at all his dogs and horses, and they looked back at him. “Well, then, I’ve caught a fine Pooka. And what’s a Pooka?”  
  
“Oh, a Pooka’s a grand thing to catch. Pookas are lucky, and the more of them you catch, the more luck you have. Pookas have black fur,” and here Rabbit pointed to his dirt-covered pelt, “and Pookas have gold eyes.” In the starlight his green eyes looked gold enough. “That’s how you can tell a Pooka when you see one.”  
  
At this, the Nightmare Man looked at all his dogs and horses, and they all looked at him. Why, they had been Pookas all this time without knowing it! And which one of them did not want all the luck that the others would bring? They fell upon each other, each trying to capture all the others, and in all the chaos Rabbit hopped away.  
  
But as he did, he hopped through a stream, and the dirt washed off his feet, and that was bad luck for him. The Nightmare Man saw, and knew at once that Rabbit had tricked him. He whipped his dogs and horses with a switch made of misfortune, and they all straightened up quick, and in no time at all they were after Rabbit, faster than the North Wind.   
  
Rabbit was pretty worried with them all on his tail, because he’d never been able to run any faster than the West Wind. But he ran with all his might anyway, and as he ran he saw the sky getting gray around him. Of course! Running in the way of the West Wind, he was running East, towards the dawn, and the Nightmare Man couldn’t follow him there!  
  
So he ran and he ran, but the sky didn’t seem to be getting any lighter. He looked behind him, and what did he see but the Nightmare Man and all his dogs and horses, dragging the night behind them, opposite of the way it should go! Rabbit shivered in fear so hard that the rest of the dirt that had been his disguise fell off, and now that he was lighter, he was able to run just a little faster, a little farther, and he left the Nightmare Man behind and broke into the dawn.  
  
But when the thwarted Nightmare Man let his horses and dogs let go of the night so they could run back quick to sunset, it didn’t flow back to where it belonged, and so the day that Rabbit broke into was just a little shorter than the one before. And this is how Autumn started.  
  
To make up for starting Autumn, the Moon made Rabbit in charge of starting Spring as well, though it was hot, hard work to make the day longer. The Moon gave him this job because he had not seen how Autumn started and so did not believe that Rabbit was innocent in the whole matter, because this is what Rabbit always said and it was never true.  
  
And that is the story, if you do not think it true, find Jack Frost and get him to tell it to you.


End file.
